Earlier this week, Mystic Powerboats founder John Cosker and Tom Borisch, the new owner of the former JBS Racing catamaran—the canopied raceboat reportedly was sold about two weeks ago—put the turbine-powered 50-foot Mystic cat through a shakedown cruise on Lake Michigan. Cosker said Borisch, who lives in Grand Rapids, Mich., will debut the boat with new graphics at the Boyne Thunder event in July, also on Lake Michigan. (Above photo by Jerry Zegart)
According to Cosker, the boat’s twin 1,850-hp turbine engines were recently refreshed by Jim Grasham and Principle Propulsion Systems in Tucson, Ariz.
“Tom just wanted to run the boat with me to make sure everything was OK before it went in for graphics,” said Cosker in a telephone interview this morning. “It’s probably the most powerful boat he’s ever been in, and we only ran it to about 135 mph in the four-footers on the lake. The boat was actually in really good shape, very clean. It was well taken care of.
“It was 30 degrees and windy and rainy—it was the coldest day of my boating life,” Cosker added, then chuckled. “I figured, ‘It’s April in Michigan, how bad could it be?’ Thank god it wasn’t an open-top boat.”
New graphics rendering for the former JBS Racing Mystic cat.
While the turbine-powered 50-footer is the most powerful boat Borisch, who lives in Grand Rapids, Mich., has owned, he is no stranger to the Mystic catamaran line. He bought and eventually sold the first 50-foot Mystic cat powered by twin Mercury Racing 1350 engines. (Read the story.) That boat also debuted at the Boyne Thunder event.
Cosker said that the owner has no plans to campaign the boat on the offshore racing circuit.
“He might let us run it in a race where it won’t get too beaten up, but he really doesn’t have any racing plans,” he said. “He wants to debut the boat with its new graphics as a big surprise at poker runs in his area up north.”
Editor’s Note: Speedonthewater.com will cover the Boyne Thunder event this summer.
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